Only Seven Felony Cases in Missoula This Week, Two From Jail Fights

Crime in Missoula seemed to plummet this week along with the drop in temperatures. The Missoula Police Department had very few felony in-custody cases, while County Attorney Kirsten Pabst said the number of felonies prosecuted was also quite low.

"We had a little bit of a lighter week," Pabst said. "We charged seven new complaints this week, three involved crimes against people. One was a Privacy in Communications, which involves the electronic communication of a threatening or vulgar message, either through a phone or email or something like that.

The privacy of communications charge mentioned by Pabst does not appear to be related to snapchat messages of a weapon reported by Big Sky High school students. While things outside the jail were relatively peaceful, there was some violence behind bars.

"There were two assaults both of which occurred in our detention facility: inmates against other inmates," Pabst said. "There was one endangerment crime that involved an aggravated DUI, cocaine possession and driving in a bike lane. There were three property crimes, a couple of thefts, one of the thefts involved an electronic shopping cart."

Seven felony cases in one week is remarkably low for the Missoula County Attorney’s office, which regularly prosecutes three times that amount during the summer months.